What’s Next? Fostering the Next Generation of Energy Security
September 30th, 2014
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Location: 1100 New York Avenue, NW 7th Floor, West Tower
Join ASP and our panelists in a discussion about the next generation of energy technology and climate policy.
In order to prevent the worst effects of climate change, total warming must remain under a rise of two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline.
Leaders of the G7 and the G20 have repeatedly stated they intend to meet that target. However, the latest IPCC report, released in April 2014, showed that in order to even have a 50% chance of meeting that 2 degree limit, total global emissions will have to peak around 2020 and will have to drop to around 50% below today’s levels by 2050.
Such a global effort would likely require developed countries like the U.S. to reduce emissions to around 80% below 2005 levels. This will not be easy.
No major country has a plan to meet this target. There is a clear disconnect between what we have committed to do (keep temperatures at a safe level) and the means with which we will do it.
That means we have to start thinking: How can we get to this target while remaining economically strong? In other words: What is the next generation of energy?
ASP’s conference on September 30, 2014 will draw on expertise from industry, academia, government, and NGOs to discuss the next generation of energy technology and climate policy.
This conference will discuss how to truly ensure that natural gas is the transition fuel that it has been touted as – not a “bridge to nowhere.”It will look at the challenges of how to bring more renewable power into an antiquated energy system – and how to overcome those challenges. It will discuss how to catalyze the development of new energy technologies that can bridge the gap between what has been promised and what current technology can achieve.
It is a mistake to think that the challenges we face today will be the challenges of tomorrow. It is an even bigger mistake to think that the technologies we have today will look like the technologies of tomorrow.
We must start thinking today, in order to be prepared for tomorrow – in order to secure our American future.
Panel One: Natural Gas/LNG – Using American Resources and Know-How to Build a World Market
The emerging geopolitics of energy shows why it is important for the United States to take a leadership role in exporting LNG. Internationally high demand and our domestic resources have created an opportunity to build a global, market-based energy economy. This will be particularly important in preventing monopoly energy producers from using their control of gas markets to sway foreign policy.
This panel will discuss the importance of American producers joining the global LNG energy markets in ensuring geopolitical benefits for the U.S., and how the U.S. could use this opportunity to build an energy bridge to the future.
Chair: Marik String
Panelists: Michael Levi, Chris Guith, Andrew Ware
Panel Two: Renewable Transportation – Policy Options to Break the Oil Monopoly
For nearly a decade, policymakers have attempted to more effectively incentivize the development of sustainable alternatives to petroleum as a transportation fuel. Mandates, subsidies, and other policies have succeeded in replacing 10% of the fuel supply with ethanol grown in the U.S. and have begun to create a network of battery-operated vehicles. But, these efforts are as yet incomplete, with further policy advances being hampered by the domestic boom in oil.
The U.S. Department of Defense is leading the way. They are pursuing plans to enhance our domestic advanced biofuel production. They are reducing petroleum use on the battlefield, saving lives. They are using renewable energy, microgrids, and advanced batteries where appropriate.
These developments are important steps towards developing a real advanced biofuel industry that can help move us toward a point where we have other options for how to fuel our cars and trucks. Our panelists will discuss the ways in which biofuels and battery-operated vehicles are becoming a reality, helping to finally break the American economy’s addiction to oil for transportation.
Chair: To Be Announced Shortly
Panelists: To Be Announced Shortly
Panel Three: Energy Technology of Tomorrow – What are the Breakthroughs – and how can Government foster that innovation?
Scientists at research universities, private companies and national laboratories around the nation are making great strides in engineering new ways to generate energy. Nuclear power, in particular, could be poised to make a comeback. However, private investors balk at funding development of untried technologies.
The government has an important role to play in bridging the gap to commercialization. Our panelists will discuss the chances of break-out designs in non-carbon based energy, the ways in which the government has already played a part, and how science can work with industry and policymakers to further diversify America’s energy mix.
Chair: Julia Pyper
Panelists: Mark Haynes, Jack A. Bailey
Panel Four: Powering the Future – Prospects for Fusion Energy
Fusion energy is real, and it is happening now. Through the cooperation of national and international governments, universities and organization, we are seeing the safest and cleanest form of energy becoming a global reality. As with biofuels, renewables and other energy technologies, fusion energy funding is also in dire need of assistance.
Our panelists will discuss how fusion energy works, what makes it the safest and cleanest form of energy that we can pursue, how government and private sector investment is making it a viable energy option, and the possible timeframes for “plugging into the grid.”
Chair: Kate Ling
Panelists: Andrew Holland, Nathan Gilliland
Resources:
Geopolitical Reasons to Approve LNG Exports
WHITE PAPER: America’s Energy Choices – 2014
FACT SHEET: Bio Fuels and National Security
Report – Small Modular Reactors
Fusion Power
Lockheed Martin Announces Plans to Build Ocean Thermal Pilot Plant
WHITE PAPER: American Competitiveness Report – An Issue of National Security
What’s Next? Fostering the Next Generation of Energy Security by The American Security Project
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